Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Dear Comic Art Fan,

ComicLink's blockbuster Spring Featured Auction closes today, Thursday June 11, 2015! The first lot closes at 8pm Eastern Time! The auction offers a strong selection of over 600 high quality lots within the original art session. "Grail" level artwork combines with more affordable treasures to create an impressive selection of highly desirable material.

Well I am from the greater Vancouver area, so I love watching my Canucks and combining my appreciation for them with my other great passion, interpretive dance with jazz hands. All of life's challenges can usually be solved with a dance-off. Just don't ask me to turn left!

2. Which piece in your gallery is your favorite?

Definitely the box art from Dragon Warrior IV. Not all of your readers will remember it since it is outside of comic art, but DW IV was an A+ classic Nintendo NES game, so I am proud to own the original. Really one of the classic RPG video games of all time. I've had it for many years but have only recently put it up on CAF.

3. How long have you been collecting comic art and what prompted you to start?

Well the first piece of comic art I ever bought was, gosh, 25 years or more ago. Tim Vigil whose work I really liked at the time (and still do) was at a local convention and had some pages for sale. He had a Faust #1 page but it was the “30 pieces of silver” Yuri page (talking heads in a taxicab) so I didn't want to spend the 60 dollars on that at the time and instead bought a 2/3 splash from Omen #1 for 50 dollars or something. Sold the splash in a few years after that and then really didn't think about comic art for many years; the CGC board art discussion kind of got my juices flowing and I eventually purchased some pieces again. However, my comic art collection is generally modest as what I really enjoy collecting is the box artwork from classic video games. A horrible challenge to find but terribly rewarding once found.

4. How do you display/store your collection at home?

I have a few in frames and with spot lighting and I really enjoy being able to see those day to day, but really the great majority of my art is kept at storage offsite. It’s a shame in many ways, but there would be too much to frame it all.

5. What are your top five most wanted original pages or commissions?

Golly, the simplest questions are the toughest to answer.

When it comes to comic art I guess my most wanted would be “the right” big classic Jack Kirby pre-hero splash. I've been keeping an eye out for two or three years but it seems like when I have the money the material I want isn't available and when the material is available, I don't have the money! Truth be told though I am not one for a checklist approach. I know what I like when I see it.

When it comes to my interest in video game box art it would be the painted art for Contra 3. If anyone comes across that, please contact me. I will pay a generous finder's fee for any information that leads to a sale.

And I hope people will realize I was kidding about #1! Whether about the Canucks or the interpretive dance I'll leave up to them.